diff --git a/share/functions/psub.fish b/share/functions/psub.fish
index b764d6f35..8c8a7eac8 100644
--- a/share/functions/psub.fish
+++ b/share/functions/psub.fish
@@ -29,7 +29,10 @@ function psub --description "Read from stdin into a file and output the filename
         or return
         set filename $dirname/psub.fifo"$_flag_suffix"
         mkfifo $filename
-        cat >$filename &
+        # Note that if we were to do the obvious `cat >$filename &`, we would deadlock
+        # because $filename may be opened before the fork. Use tee to ensure it is opened
+        # after the fork.
+        tee $filename >/dev/null &
     else if test -z "$_flag_suffix"
         set filename (mktemp $tmpdir/.psub.XXXXXXXXXX)
         cat >$filename